DURHAM — In response to a contract between Oyster River Youth Association (ORYA) and the Oyster River Cooperative School District for a high-school football program document, School Superintendent Jim Morse said there is no way the current language will be approved or agreed upon.

He said the proposed contract is a working document from ORYA and not anything the district has officially accepted or reviewed.

He also said this is what ORYA has submitted as a “first blush” document.

In the contract, language that seems to place financial responsibility back onto the district should the program fail has some residents concerned.

But the position of ORYA all along, Morse said, is that there would be no cost whatsoever for the district or its taxpayers to bear, and it is that position that board members will work to ensure in coming months as a contract is discussed.

He said the board has been diligent and will continue to be in upholding that understanding.

Due to the status of ongoing negotiations between ORYA and the ORCSD, Tom Burd, ORYA football coordinator declined the ability to comment.

He did say, however, that Morse has been receptive throughout the process of ORYA starting a football team at the high school level.

Currently, the association has students playing football through the eighth-grade level, but nowhere for students to play within the district after that.A high-school football team would resolve that issue and provide a home team for students to play on, he has said.

Though the individual towns that comprise the district have no real say in what the School District does, even Durham Town Administrator Todd Selig has received complaints and concerns from residents of his community over cost.“The towns of Durham, Lee, and Madbury have no oversight over the activities of the Oyster River Cooperative School District,” he responded.

Perhaps one of the most concerning pieces of language of the contract is that which was included in an email Selig responded to from a resident.

The verbiage states that ORYA reserves “the right to terminate its involvement in this agreement with 90 days notice. Any and all additional expenditures from the date of notice forward shall be the responsibility of ORCSD.”

Morse assured it is this type of language that board members would not agree to and that there was still quite a way to go before reaching any sort of official agreement.“We've got three months of talking to do,” Morse said.